Pages

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Mark was born on this day in 1941, at 11:45 AM at Santa RosaHospital in San Antonio, Texas. He weighed seven pounds, seven ounces. At the time his father, Francis Edward Gresham, was 30 and working as a multilith operator for Studer's Photograph Studio. His mother, Jewel Moore Gresham, was 26, and this was their first child. They were living at 405 San Pedro at the time.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Tandy Clayton Moore is Breathless' maternal grandfather. He was born 133 years ago today, on August 22, 1878, in or near Salem, Lee County, Alabama, the oldest child of Thomas Jefferson Moore (1852-1904) and Angeline/Evangeline Elizabeth "Lizzie" Peach (1859–1924). In 1880, the family was living in or near Auburn in Lee County, Alabama.

When Clayton, as he was known, was five, his parents, two younger brothers, grandfather and step-grandmother, four of five Moore uncles, and two of three Moore aunts, all moved to Texas, taking the train to Lewisville. Clayton helped with the family farm near Flower Mound, raising crops to help support his aunt Sue Moore, who was 11 years older and single.

Photographs of Clayton from late 1900 or early 1901 show that he was quite a handsome man. Breathless' first cousin, Thomas Clayton Moore, says about their grandfather on page 49 in his unpublished manuscript Heroic Lives of Ordinary People, that

Sometime in the summer of 1898, when he was nineteen, he went to talk to the Bartonville postmaster, Wiley Thomas Jones, at the postmaster's home about a postal matter. While engaged in conversation, he saw a pretty 16 year old woman getting wood from the woodpile for the cookstove. He told this writer many years later that he decided then and there that that was the girl he wanted to marry. He learned that her name was Nancy Flora Jones.

They were married, on August 7, 1901, "at the residence of Robert Keith, the officiating minister." according to the Denton County News, August 15, 1901, page 8, column 5.

Clayton and "Nannie" headed north to Oklahoma, eventually leasing 40 acres (for five cents an acre) near Indiahoma in Comanche County from a Comanche chief named Chebahtah. It was here, in an eight-foot by ten-foot dugout, that their first child, Thomas Gurth, was born in 1902. Besides farming cotton, Clayton also worked building fences and doing odd jobs for $10 a month for Quanah Parker (c1852-1911, the son of another famous Indian captive, Cynthia Ann Parker, c1827-1870).

About a year later, the family moved to Fort Worth. Clayton worked for a carpenter, driving nails for a dollar a day, ten hours a day, six days a week. Daughter Velma was born near Lewisville in October 1903 (sadly, she died in 1910 of diptheria). After Clayton's father died young of pneumonia in 1904, the family moved back to the Flower Mound homestead to help Clayton's two younger brothers work the family farm. Daughter Ivis was born there in 1905.

Late in 1906, Clayton found a farm 14 miles west of Fort Worth, and moved his family there. Later he took a job in construction with the Swift and Company meat packer. Daughter Ruby Clayton was born here in February, 1907. When Clayton was laid off by Swift and Company two years later, he found a 20 acre farm to rent near Azle, and the family moved there in 1909. Daughter Beulah Mable was born there in March 1910.

Clayton later rented a larger place, 80 acres near White Settlement, with a log cabin near Little Silver Creek. Their last two daughters were born here, Audie Ruth in 1911, and Breathless' mother, Jewel, in October 1914. The family later moved into the "big house" on this former plantation, which was surrounded by geraniums. Jewel later said that "whenever she smelled the fragrance of geraniums, she thought of this time." (page 88).

In the summer of 1918, Clayton's cotton crop was destroyed by boll weevils, so the family followed friends to Marlow, Stephens County, Oklahoma. They bought a 120-acre farm in Bray, about ten miles west of Marlow. This is where they lived the rest of their lives. Son Gurth died of pneumonia in January 1930, and they helped their daughter-in-law by caring for his two sons at the farm in the late 1930s.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Breathless' maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Moore, was born on this day 159 years ago, in Salem, Russell County, Alabama. He was the only son of Milton Jonathan Moore (1830-1912) and his first (of three) wives, Rutha Jane Lawson.

He married Angeline/Evangeline Elizabeth "Lizzie" Peach (1859–1924) on December 18, 1876, in Lee County, Alabama. In 1880, they were living with their oldest son, Tandy Clayton Moore (1878-1964) near Auburn, Lee County, Alabama, where Thomas was a farmer.

In October 1883, Thomas and his family (a second child had been born), his father and stepmother, four of his five younger half-brothers and two of his three younger half-sisters, sold almost everything they owned and bought train tickets for Lewisville, Texas.

Thomas purchased 90 acres seven miles west of Lewisville (near today's Flower Mound) for $5 an acre, with a house, some outbuildings, and a well already on it. Six more children were born in Texas. The family posed for a photograph outside their home sometime in late 1900 or early 1901.

Thomas Jefferson Moore died of pneumonia at the age of 51, on March 24, 1904, at home near Flower Mound in Denton County, Texas. He is buried at the Shiloh Cemetery in Flower Mound.

[Some of the information in this profile came from Heroic Lives of Ordinary People, an unpublished family history by Thomas Clayton Moore, Breathless' first cousin.]

Thursday, August 18, 2011

On this day, August 18, in 1846, 165 years ago, my paternal great-great-grandparents, Jacob/Jakob Pape and Elizabeth Gierse, were married in Boedefeld, Westphalia, Germany. There is no date on this image (provided by my cousin Bill) but I'm guessing it was taken sometime in the 1860s.

On January 19, 2011, I heard back from Jim Heuer, an architectural historian who lives in Irvington and is a member of the Irvington Community Association's Historic Preservation Committee, as well as a member of the Historic Preservation League of Oregon and a board member for the Architectural Heritage Center. He told me the following:

Pape, Ewald T.

Ewald T. Pape was not a registered architect but the high quality of the apartment houses he designed in Portland merit his inclusion in this reference work on Oregon architects.

Nothing is known about Pape’s date or place of birth or his education. He is first listed in the Portland City Directory for 1923 as a draftsman. In the 1925 city directory, he is listed as a designer of character homes with an office on Sandy Boulevard. From 1926 to 1934, he had an office in the Couch Building, and from 1935 to 1941 he had his office in the Sherlock Building. Directory listings describe him variously as Architect, Home Designer, Architectural Designer, and Building Contractor (in 1953 and 1954). There are no more directory listings for Pape after 1954.

Between 1925 and 1933, Pape established business relationships with Portland developers William K. Johnson and Robert McFarland, designing apartment houses for each of them. He began by designing four unit apartment buildings, but was soon designing quarter and half block apartment buildings. His designs included the Sheffield Manor, Willister Courts, Burrell Court, Burrell Heights Apartments, San Farlando, Del Mar and others. For William K. Johnson, Pape designed Villa Marconi, Thompson Court, and others.

Pape’s apartment work was innovative, with major emphasis on livability and eliminating the stigma of apartment living by providing individuality and separate entrances for each unit.

In 1923, [he was] residing at the Royal Palms Apartments at 262 Flanders in the North Burnside area and working independently as a draftsman.

In the next year [1924], he married Alma and moved to the Houseman Apartments (now Casa Linda) at 730 Hoyt in Nob Hill.

Beginning in 1925, Pape established an independent office at 956 Sandy Boulevard and began to market himself as a designer of fine homes.

The following year [1926], he moved his office to the Couch Building on 4th Avenue.

[Around 1925,] Pape hired architect O. M. Akers to design a small family house for him in Eastmoreland at 1520 E. 36th Avenue (7528 SE 36th Avenue).

Also, during World War II, "Pape's commissions stopped. Registered architects were involved with federal projects related to the war effort. These included mass housing projects which kept most busy for the duration. Since Pape was not a registered architect, demand for design services evaporated with the reallocation of raw materials to the war effort. He instead took a job as an estimator for the Portland Door Company. After the war, he returned to home designs. He also attempted to capitalize on the housing boom by developing homes on speculation. In 1955, Pape disappeared from the City Directory. Given the substance of his work, he very likely retired and moved out of the area." (He, his wife, and his son all died in California).

Sunday, August 7, 2011

On August 7, 1976, my cousin Terrie (who is my financial adviser today) got married in Des Plaines, Illinois. Besides my family of origin (and the bride's, whose father is my dad's brother), two of my dad's sisters and their families were there - so lots of aunts, uncles, cousins and a couple cousins-in-law pictured below: